BACKGROUND A high sodium intake has been found to increase bronchial reactivity in men with asthma. The effects of change in sodium intake on peak flow rate have not been determined. METHODS The effect of changing dietary salt intake for two weeks on the severity of asthma as measured by peak expiratory flow (PEF) was studied in 17 patients with mild asthma in an open randomised crossover tri...

BACKGROUND Air pollution is a problem, especially in developing countries. We examined the association between personal exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) on respiratory health in a group of adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS All participants resided in Mexico City and during follow-up, personal exposure to PM2.5...

BACKGROUND Variability in peak expiratory flow (PEF) has been proposed as a simple method of screening for asthma in epidemiological studies. This study was designed to assess whether the bronchial response to exercise and the diurnal variation in PEF identified the same subjects. METHODS Bronchial response to a free running exercise test was assessed in a cohort of 918 seven year old childre...

BACKGROUND Variability of peak expiratory flow (PEF) has been proposed as a surrogate for bronchial hyperresponsiveness. The normal range of variability of PEF for children has been reported and the test has been used to screen for asthma in population based studies. However, there is little information on the reproducibility of the method in epidemiological settings. METHODS In a cohort stud...

The aim of the present study was to test the effects of exposure to air pollutants on lung function. A panel of 19 adult asthmatics living in Padua (Italy) was followed for five 30-day periods during 2 yrs consecutively (1,492 morning and 1,434 evening measures analysed). Peak expiratory flow (PEF) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) were measured using a pocket electronic meter. Daily...

Results Thirty patients (17 male, 56.7%) with a median age of 11.5 (8.7-13.6) years were included. 12 patients (40%) had mild allergic rhinitis, whereas 18 (60%) had moderate-persistent allergic rhinitis interfering with daily activities. There was no significant difference at spirometric parameters including forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume at 1 second (FEV1) and FEV1/FVC ...

introduction: renal failure affects the mechanical and the ventilatory function of the lungs. a few studies have evaluated the ventilatory and pulmonary function in dialysis patients. the present study aimed to compare pulmonary function test (pft) results in patients undergoing hemodialysis (hd) and peritoneal dialysis (pd). materials and methods: we conducted a cross-sectional study on 50  pa...

Introduction: Renal failure affects the mechanical and the ventilatory function of the lungs. A few studies have evaluated the ventilatory and pulmonary function in dialysis patients. The present study aimed to compare Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) results in patients undergoing Hemodialysis (HD) and Peritoneal Dialysis (PD). Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on 50  pa...

This paper systematically reviews literature on the application of serial peak expiratory flow (PEF) measurements in the diagnosis of occupational asthma and calculates summary estimates of the sensitivity, specificity, and feasibility of serial PEFs.

BACKGROUND Epidemiological investigations indicate that an Asian dust storm (ADS) can aggravate respiratory disorders. However, the effects of ADS on airway inflammation remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of exposure to ADS with airway inflammation. METHODS The subjects were 33 adult patients with asthma who measured daily peak flow expiratory (PEF) from ...